In 1 Timothy 3:6, it says that an aspiring overseer ‘must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.’ What does this mean?
Well, it is the fact that the devil has no power to condemn anyone. Therefore, we must understand it that, if he is not careful, this man, being puffed up, shall fall into the same condemnation as the devil. I take that to mean that he will act in the same way as the devil acts. That is to say, the devil was puffed up with pride.
If we are to understand those colourful passages in the Prophets that describe the king of Babylon and the king of Tyre (see Ezekiel 28) in such exalted language that many have proposed that behind those earthly kings there stood the personage of Satan himself, then we may deduce that Satan's great sin was that he was puffed up with pride and, in consequence, fell from that high office.
I take it that Paul is saying the same about this novice. The great temptation to him of high office in the church would be that he would not have the maturity to carry it with all due humility. He would be puffed up with pride, as the devil was puffed up with pride, and therefore fall into sin and be rendered unfit for his office.
It cannot mean that a believer, having fallen into pride and therefore being no longer fit to undertake that office, would, by that same token, be cast eventually into the lake of fire.
Peter himself, who became an apostle, a 'great shepherd of the sheep', an example elder to all the rest of us, fell early on, as we have already seen. He fell, not by pride, but by cowardice, and went so far as to deny the Lord. But Peter wasn't on that account cast away, rejected by the Saviour and eventually cast into the lake of fire. In spite of his fall and his denial of the Lord, he never lost his faith because our Lord had prayed that he should not lose his faith. He was eventually restored, not only to bold confession of Christ, but restored to his office.
And, therefore, I take it that this passage in 1 Timothy 3 has nothing really to do with the question of eternal security.
